Wireless access of ext hD

[imamartian]

We have a wireless router and two laptops. But we also have an external hard drive, and we'd like to be able to access this from out laptops. What hardware do i need to buy? Is it as simple as a dongle plugged into it's USB?

thanks!

 

[disinfo]

This sort of thing would do it.

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/product/38590/Quad-Port-USB-NAS-Adapter?source=googleps

You'd need to put the USB HDD next to your router and have a patch lead connected to the two, you could then access it via wifi.

 

[tim west]

this is rather sexy:

https://store.tonido.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=1

 

[empip]

This is, allegedly how to do it, using the BTHomehub
http://www.jarviser.co.uk/jarviser/howto1.html#type6

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[imamartian]

Thanks gents...

I have a netgear router, which only has lan ports on it, not usb. Do these devices plug into a lan port, and then my hdd into that via usb?

Do they take much setting up, or are they simple plug and play?

 

[disinfo]

The one I linked to connects via ethernet to your router.

USB from dongle to External HDD

Ethernet from dongle to router.

I've never actually used one, so cant answer your second question.

You can find them cheaper than the one i linked to on eBay

 

[foxhole]

Remove you hard drive and stick it in something like this
http://new.ukdvdr.co.uk/product.php...m+Network+MediaPlayer+450+WLAN+(Drive-In+Kit) and also benefits by having built in media player to stream straight to tv.

 

[ericmark]

I used one of these which works directly from the LAN. I got it from [url]www.play.com [/url] at £88 for 500GB felt good value. The cost of converting an old USB drive seems too high when compared to new drive cost.

However a few warnings.
1) Although with Windows you have password protection this does not work with Linux so if connected to wireless router do make it secure.
2) As it comes it has it's own IP address and sub net mask to use with other network devices like router or printer likely you will need to manually change these addresses.
3) They take a little time to spin up when in sleep mode and programs like Word if set to auto backup can come up with reports like Hard drive full so better to save to local drive and then transfer.

You can of course set you desk PC to allow other PC's to access a drive letter and you could set permission's on one PC to allow access from another.

Did look for simple case without hard-drive but I could only find USB only type. Read also "Network Drive" as some overlap here.